Chapter 8
The next morning, Brambleclaw was lying alone by the fresh-kill pile, staring numbly at the mouse resting in his paws and lost in his thoughts, when Ashfur approached him. Well, he didn't really approach him, per se, but the gray-furred warrior was looking for something to eat, and Brambleclaw happened to be there.
Never being one for awkward small-talk, Ashfur tried to avoid Brambleclaw, but it simply wasn't possible. The younger tom was in his way, and trying to go around him only resulted in being noticed. When Brambleclaw looked up, his amber eyes cold and glazed, Ashfur froze, as if caught committing a kit-like crime. He waited awkwardly for Brambleclaw to look away, but he didn't - the two pairs of eyes locked, each unwilling to lose the unspoken battle, until Ashfur averted his eyes.
"Sorry," he murmured, not exactly sure for what he was apologizing, and scooped up a pair of squirrels in his teeth. Something about Brambleclaw's icy demeanor was intimidating, frightening him. It was as though the brown tabby wanted to reach up and tear his throat out then and there. The thought made Ashfur shiver, and he was perfectly prepared to scamper away with his prey, but a strange scent pulled his paws to a stop.
He dropped his squirrels and tasted the air. Oddly, the area around the fresh-kill pile smelled like...
"Berries?" The inquiry was directed at himself, and he hadn't meant to speak aloud. He felt his ears reddening with embarrassment and stole a glance at Brambleclaw. What a mousebrain he must look like, clumsily dropping prey and talking to himself.
Brambleclaw's glare burned into him. "What about berries?" he snarled.
Ashfur wasn't exactly sure what had gotten Brambleclaw in such a foul mood, but really, did he have to snarl about the berries? The cerulean eyes narrowed as he hardened his resolve.
"Yes, berries," he snapped. "Taste the air, you'll scent it too. I was just wondering where it came from."
"Why do you have two squirrels?" Ashfur raised his eyes in question at the abrupt change in subject, but Brambleclaw cut him off before he could even begin to formulate a reply. "It's against the warrior code, you know, to take more prey than you've hunted -"
"One's for Squirrelflight." It was all Ashfur could do to contain a victorious smirk as Brambleclaw's eyes contorted with ill-concealed jealousy. He scooped up the squirrels between his jaws and, with a risky glance back at Brambleclaw, stalked off to find Squirrelflight.
x
Brambleclaw forced himself to shove thoughts of Ashfur aside and move along with his father's plot. It was all he could think to do, the only way to keep the jealousy and desperation from consuming him.
Befriending Hazelkit had been easy. The little she-cat would never have said no in a million moons when Brambleclaw offered to take her out of camp for the first time. True, she'd been a bit disappointed when he'd made her promise not to tell her brothers, but she got over it. She loved her walks in the woods with Brambleclaw, and if keeping it from her brothers was the only way she could keep her secret treasure, she would do it.
Her admiration for Brambleclaw was boundless. Here was this lean, muscled, strong, handsome, dark-furred tom with amber eyes that positively glowed, and he chose to spend his time with her, a mere kit? Hazelkit was honored beyond belief, and at first showed this respect by walking in silence and listening to the cat she followed speak. But soon Brambleclaw's monologues became companionable conversations between the warrior and the kit, whom Brambleclaw was surprised to find had intelligent insights and a sharp mind.
"I smell squirrel," she mewed casually as they walked, sunlight dappling the treetops and spilling onto her gray and brown fur. She looked to Brambleclaw, her hazel eyes wide and pleading. "Can I try and catch it?"
Brambleclaw laughed softly. "I'm impressed that you scented it," he praised, "But really, you shouldn't be hunting now."
Hazelkit gritted her adorably tiny teeth in frustration. "You always say that. When can I hunt, Brambleclaw?"
The warm amber eyes radiated with sympathy. "In less than a moon you'll be an apprentice, and your mentor will teach you how."
Small gray-brown paws dug into the earth. Suddenly, a thought occured to her, and her eyes brightened instantaneously. "Hey, Brambleclaw, maybe you can be my mentor!" Her steps acquired a sizable bounce, and she pounced happily on a patch of sunlight. "It'd be so much fun! We could keep walking in the woods, and you could teach me to hunt!"
"Maybe. You'd have to ask Firestar."
"Aww c'mon, don't tell me you're not excited," Hazelkit prompted. "I bet it'd be really fun to have an apprentice. I want one some day. I kind of mentor Berrykit and Mousekit now, anyways... they're both such mousebrains. Without me looking after them, they'd loose their heads."
She has no idea how excited I am, Brambleclaw thought, smirking wildly inside. But I mustn't show it.
Instead, he laughed lightly, a new laugh he'd somehow acquired on these walks with Hazelkit. "I'll bet you look after them better than your mother," he joked. "You're a good sister. You'd probably also be a good mentor, and a good apprentice."
The bright blue-green eyes glowed. "Are you saying... yes?"
"Well, in the end it's Firestar's decision..."
"I'll talk to him!" Hazelkit declared. "I'll tell him that I want you to be my mentor. He'll listen, right? There's no reason not. And then we'll have so much fun..."
"Definitely." The amber eyes Hazelkit loved so much shone, and the illumination made them look all the more brilliant. She squealed happily.
"I'll go find Firestar as soon as we get back. And I'll tell him -"
"No, don't tell him about our walks," Brambleclaw cut him.
She gazed at him in confusion. "Why not?"
He paused. "Well... really, kits aren't supposed to leave camp. But you looked so eager, and I thought, it's unfair that an intruiging and excited kit like you not get a taste of the outside world, you know? But I don't think Firestar would be happy with that."
Hazelkit beamed. He saw her as intruiging and excited? Her ears reddened at his praise.
"Alright, I won't tell him about our special walks. I'll just tell him how much I like you." She grinned. "It's not like I'm lying."
Brambleclaw returned the grin, and laughed. She mistaked the triumphant glint in his eyes for joy, and laughed along with him.
x
About a week later, designated as leader of the sunhigh patrol, Ashfur chose Squirrelflight and Ferncloud to come along. It was his sister's first time out of camp since the birth of her kits, and seeing her up and running again energized him. With the she-cat of his dreams and his sister by his side, it seemed to Ashfur that life couldn't get any better.
That is, until he stumbled into a thorn thicket.
Squirrelflight laughed wildly. "Ashfur, you mousebrain! You just fell right into that!" Even Ferncloud, never one to display her emotions in neon lights, was grinning in amusement.
Ashfur stumbled out of the thorn bush, glaring at the two giggling she-cats. "How about some sympathy?" he demanded in mock anger. "I've been turned into a cat-porcupine -"
"You're bleeding!" Squirrelflight's keen eyes picked up the red smears all across his back and flank where he had fallen into the thicket and rushed to his side.
"How did the blood get all over his fur so quickly?" Ferncloud wondered aloud, but Squirrelflight wasn't listening. She pinned Ashfur to the ground - at this, he let out a yelp of surprise but did not resist - and lowered her tongue to the cuts.
The second her tongue met his fur, her eyes widened and ears perked straight up. She paused.
"What is it?" Ferncloud inquired.
"It's not blood. It's... berries."
Ashfur stood up and sniffed at his shoulder, which was splattered with some of the red liquid from the berries. "She's right," he mewed. "Look, there are berries growing in the thorn thicket." As he said, little pinpricks of red dotted the mass of thorns.
Squirrelflight laughed. "That's a relief. At least I know that you're not a bloody mess."
"No, but he is a mess," Ferncloud noted. Ashfur glared at her, to which she replied with a wink and twinkling eyes.
"We can get you all washed up when we get back to camp," Squirrelflight meowed, "And it'll be fun, because you probably taste really good -"
Ferncloud scrunched up her features. "Ew..."
"Ferncloud!"
"Sorry."
Not sorry in the slightest, Ferncloud plastered on a huge smirk.
The rest of the patrol passed rather quickly in Ashfur's mind. As they turned around the ShadowClan border and began back towards camp, Squirrelflight chose to start up a conversation to break the silence setting in.
"I wonder if anyone'll even recognize Ashfur when we get back to camp," she joked.
"Yeah, he looks like a completely different cat," Ferncloud agreed. "We could pretend he's a rogue and have him chased away."
"Yes, that's incredibly possible." The gray-furred warrior's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Seeing as I look just like Ashfur but with red spots all over me, no one will ever suspect that I'm actually Ashfur."
Squirrelflight leapt into the air. "See, you aren't Ashfur! You're referring to him in third person!"
"Yeah, and who would connect a random red-gray tom with the Ashfur we all know and love?" Ferncloud added.
Ashfur froze.
Ferncloud and Squirrelflight came to a stop and looked back. "What's wrong?" asked Ferncloud.
"Yeah, we were just kidding," mewed Squirrelflight, searching his face for signs of offense.
Ashfur blinked, shook his head, and snapped out of his trance. "I'm fine. Just thinking." His response was almost to curt, almost to suspicious, but lucky for him, neither Squirrelflight nor Ferncloud cared enough to scrutinize it.
But something had clicked in Ashfur's brain. The smell of berries, the red-tinted fur. If he could look reddish gray, then a brown-furred cat could look red-brown...
No, he told himself. I'm just paranoid and oversuspicious. It's not fair that I dislike him because he loved Squirrelflight.
But he had smelled of berries. And he could be the mysterious "red-brown tom" Ripplepaw had allegedly described.
No, his subconscious snapped. Stop being rediculous. Anyhow, what motive would he have? He had no reason... unless -
It was as if a bucket of freezing water had been dumped over his head. "Hawkfrost!"
Squirrelflight and Ferncloud, padded a couple paces a head of him, stopped to give him confused looks. "What about Hawkfrost?" asked Ferncloud.
Belatedly realizing he had spoken aloud, Ashfur shuffled his paws awkwardly and ducked his head to hide the pink tint he knew was rushing to his ears. "Oh, nothing," he mewed awkwardly, "I was just thinking about him being the new deputy of RiverClan..."
If the two she-cats thought he was acting incredibly strangely, neither of them said it. Or maybe they did, silently, with shared expressions and the glint in their eyes. But Ashfur was too embarrassed to notice that. Squirrelflight, taking pity on him, brushed his crimson-stained pelt lightly.
"C'mon, let's get back to camp and get you cleaned up," she mewed cheerfully.
If only Ashfur could share her joyful mood. Something smelled fishy, and he was determined to sniff it out.
--
A/N: sorry for slow updates. Actually, I guess this one was a bit faster than the last. But between school and my new obsession with Death Note, there's little time for Warriors. Lucky for this story, I've quit reading Death Note after... something made me mad. And incredibly sad. But that's beside the point.
Thanks to everyone for the positive support. Yay, replies! :)
Gethernia: yeah, she lived... for an extra minute. Sorry. :( Poor Ripplepaw...
Painted Inkblot: you're right, I never noticed that. Hawkfrost has never had an apprentice. I was going off the basis that Hawkfrost was deputy in Dawn while Mistyfoot was missing, and then demoted when she returned. He must have had an apprentice in the time skip or something. I'll have to look that up.
Lunarpaw: poor Ripplepaw... AND Reedwhisker, AND Mistyfoot, both of whom I love very much and hated to kill. Not that I killed them or anything. Blame Hawkfrost. ;)
Shellheart: actually, Kestrelpaw is definitely a tom. I know, his name is a bit girly, but he is always listed as a tom, at least in the two Power of Three books that I own. Poor gender confused kitties... :)
feathercloud13: writer's block is currently being shoved into a closet. xD
StarClan's Nightmare: hopefully this chapter answered your question. --wink--
icethroat21: aww, thanks. Super-positive reviews like yours make me really really happy. --munches on chocolate and grins--